Six degrees

Ip Man (right) passed away 40 years ago today, aged 79, from throat cancer. Born in Foshan, Guangdong province, the martial-art teacher's legacy is the global popularity of wing chun. Yip has been the subject of a whole raft of films recently; so much so that Donnie Yen Ji-dan has become sick of the role, telling the Guangzhou Daily in 2010, "After Ip Man 2, I will never touch any films related to Ip Man … Whenever something becomes a success, everyone jumps on the bandwagon." The bandwagon must go on, however, and the latest to hop aboard, playing the sifu in Wong Kar-wai's upcoming The Grandmasters, is Tony Leung Chiu-wai …

Gable, unlike Leung, liked the ladies a little too much: he married five of them and had affairs with countless others. His third wife, Carole Lombard, became the first "female American casualty of the second world war" when the plane carrying her home from a war-bond selling tour crashed. After her death, Gable followed Lombard's wishes and enlisted, in the United States Army Air Corps. MGM's most valuable asset was largely spared combat, though, and when he tired of being kept out of harm's way he was granted a discharge. His discharge papers were signed by Captain Ronald Reagan …